Sunday, January 30, 2011

Trip #1 Day One

This weekend marked the first subsidized trip from the London Center. They offer 4 each semester, though I think Bill said there is talk of a fifth. I dunno. Anyway, this weekend, we headed out to the West Country. This included stops in Avebury (to see rocks), Glastonbury (to see ruins of the abbey), Wells (to see the Cathedral), Bath (to see, well, the Baths), and finally Stonehenge (to finish the trip with more rocks).

It was a bright and sunny day when we left, not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was warm and delightful. Except not. This is England. And at 5 am when I had to get up, it was not sunny, it was cloudy and cold. Now, I know you all at home are getting hit with an ice blast, but here where it has been no lower than 40, walking around for extended periods outside to see some rocks while it was freezing (I say this because it was literally 0 degrees Celsius, meaning it was technically freezing) sure chills ya to the bone pretty quickly.

Anyway, Avebury is lesser known than Stonehenge, though apparently equally impressive. I mean, apparently it took years to drag all of those rocks and arrange them in a circle. Well, two circles I guess. There were a couple cool ones, like the fertility rock/devil's throne. Sit on it, it will bring you many years of fertile child bearing happiness. Run around it 100 times counterclockwise, it will bring you the devil. Yeah, how those two ended up on the same rock, I have no idea. There's also a big ditch. I guess that was important. Yeah, you can see I'm really into this.

Trying to push Casey in the ditch

The boys really loved the rocks

It makes me look short! Oh, wait...

Willie is communing with his inner Ariel. As he said "Imagine a wave behind me!"

You can't really see the circle cause there isn't really a good way to get it, but you can see how big the stones are

They train horses around here too!

We then headed over to Glastonbury (it is at this point that I excitedly say I've finally been places my father hasn't! He keeps saying 'I've been there" every time I tell him about something. So THERE! Kidding Dad, love you). Anyway, Glastonbury has this HUGE Abbey. Well, it did. Till the Reformation. Then the Protestants destroyed it and it lies in ruins. Lots of cool stuff here, included King Arthur's tomb (ITS THE REAL DEAL CESCA), a thorn tree (it's Mediterranean, no idea how it got to England), and this GIANT HILL called the Tor. We climbed it. I almost died. But the view was lovely. Casey made a video and we have tons of beautiful pictures. Check out my Facebook for more!

Our Glastonbury tour guide. He was Sir Dunston. I think

Some of the ruins

King Arthur's supposed tomb was here

So huge and cool

The thorn tree that shouldn't be there

The Tower on top of the Tor... What a walk!

"Do you trust me?"

All of us on top of the Tor

Everything the light touches is our kingdom.
A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new king.

yeah, we went there with the Lion King references

Casey made a video at the top for your viewing pleasure

Then we headed over to Wells for a short trip to Wells Cathedral. Couldn't take pics inside without a permit, so I didn't. But it was pretty sweet and I have a postcard with a lot of the inside stuff on it

Wells Cathedral

Finally, to end day one, we got to the YMCA we were staying in in Bath. It was more a hostel, so it was pretty nice. We were exhausted so we went out and got food (I got fish and chips!) and then crashed at like 9. It was glorious.

The beds were cute!

And that was day one! Will update about day 2 after I do some homework and make dinner (Oh, so grown up!) which will include Bath and Stonehenge. Pretty sweet.

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About Me

I'm a short Italian girl with big dreams and a passion for travelling. I love Phantom of the Opera, video games, chocolate, my twin sister, and making witty remarks and funny faces.
I'm currently teaching English at an elementary school in Seoul, South Korea.